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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 4225-4232, Vol. 67, No. 9
Department of Civil, Environmental, and
Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder,
Colorado 80309
Received 18 January 2001/Accepted 23 June 2001
Photoreactivation was observed in airborne Mycobacterium
parafortuitum exposed concurrently to UV radiation (254 nm) and
visible light. Photoreactivation rates of airborne cells increased with increasing relative humidity (RH) and decreased with increasing UV
dose. Under a constant UV dose with visible light absent, the UV
inactivation rate of airborne M. parafortuitum cells
decreased by a factor of 4 as RH increased from 40 to 95%; however,
under identical conditions with visible light present, the UV
inactivation rate of airborne cells decreased only by a factor of 2. When irradiated in the absence of visible light, cellular cyclobutane
thymine dimer content of UV-irradiated airborne M. parafortuitum and Serratia marcescens increased in
response to RH increases. Results suggest that, unlike in waterborne
bacteria, cyclobutane thymine dimers are not the most significant form
of UV-induced DNA damage incurred by airborne bacteria and that the
distribution of DNA photoproducts incorporated into UV-irradiated
airborne cells is a function of RH.
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.4225-4232.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Photoreactivation in Airborne
Mycobacterium parafortuitum
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of
Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. Phone: (303) 492-5991. Fax:
(303) 492-7317. E-mail: Mark.Hernandez{at}Colorado.Edu.
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